2008 Grand Rêve Vintners Collaboration Series I Ciel du Cheval Vineyard

Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Library, 6/25/2017

  (Force Majeure Collaboration Series I) Hello friends. Because of our list’s long support for the winery, we have access to today to something very cool from Force Majeure: a library release (sort of). The reason for the parenthetical “sort of” above: this 2008 has actually never been released before; this is its first time on offer. I inquired with Paul McBride as to how/why that happened, and here is his response: Typically we release a new vintage 3 years after the vintage year (so 2008 was released in 2011).  However, with this particular vintage, this wine just needed more time in bottle as it came across as disjointed and not integrated with the oak in 2011.  Ben Smith liked the wine and was confident it would come around with time--so we decided to hold back.  Of course that then begs the question when to release when you have additional vintages coming due every year.  So 2009-13 vintages came and were released, then we embarked on the Estate wines with Todd in 2014.  So bottom line: time flies and we never found a good time to release the 2008 until now.  Checking in on the wine we found a very elegant and now fully integrated wine, approaching its peak, ready for consumption. As Paul alludes to above, Force Majeure has discontinued their Collaboration Series to focus squarely on their outstanding estate vineyard. Since it has been awhile since we’ve written about the series, here’s a refresher: Back when Force Majeure launched (actually, the winery was called Grand Reve back then, pre-trademark lawsuit), the idea was to produce the Collaboration Series of wines while waiting for the estate vineyard (planted crazily high and crazily steep towards the top of Red Mountain) to come online. The Collaboration Series combined different Washington winemakers with plots of beautiful old Ciel du Cheval Vineyard fruit, and they quickly established a rabid following, from both consumers and critics. One of the very best of the series, year in and year out, was CSI. This was Ben Smith, of Cadence fame, making a Cab-dominant Bordeaux blend from old-vine Ciel material. Glorious. And I love that the vintage here is 2008, a criminally overlooked vintage in Washington due to its proximity to critical-darling 2007. ‘08 was a tick cooler than ’07 but was nevertheless a very good year, and I’d actually argue that, over time, as the wines have aged, I have a slight preference for old ‘08s from Washington over old ‘07s. It’s an acidity/freshness thing. This particular 2008 is 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, the remainder about evenly split among Cab Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. It was aged in 70% new French oak for 20 months (that’s one place where Ben’s winemaking for Force Majeure diverged from Cadence; comfort level with a higher proportion of new wood). The library release is just 120 cases, and the Force Majeure mailing list has a 12-day head start on us (their e-mail went out on June 13), but still, we’re getting in early enough that we should be able to snag a decent parcel. This begins with a clearly maturing nose, combining some primary fruit (redcurrant, plum) with loads of maturing complexities: dried fruit, smoky spice (anise, cocoa), citrus peel, leather and earth and cedar. It’s a nose for contemplation. The palate (14.8% listed alc) displays balance in all directions, and a perfectly weighted, dense-and-succulent texture combed to a fine sheen by the power of bottle age. This is Red Mountain Cabernet, so there are still some integrating tannins turning up on the back end; they’re fine-grained, polished, elegant. This feels like a wine just entering its peak window, with years of fascinating evolution ahead.